Religious Heritage

Cultural Heritage and IPR in Bulgaria

The European Learn-IP project officially ends at the end of February this year. It involves partners from five countries – Germany, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia. The entire team was dedicated to the creation of a special training and self-education program for those working in the field of cultural tourism and cultural heritage, which touches on the topic of intellectual property, ways of protection at the national and international level, the economic effects of IPR and ways of developing activities , based on IPRs that bring more revenue. INI-Novation Bulgaria participates in the project, as the Bulgarian partner.

In Bulgaria, intellectual property rights  (IPR) can be used not only to protect but also to monetize cultural heritage and tourism assets. This may include the registration of trademarks for cultural-historical values and tourist destinations, copyrights for historical documents and works of art, and patents for any new technologies or methods used in the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. By protecting and effectively managing these rights, Bulgaria  attracts more tourists and generate revenue from the sale of goods, licensing and other commercial opportunities. Moreover, it can prevent the unauthorized use of the country’s cultural heritage assets and thus preserve the cultural and historical heritage of the country for future generations.

Bulgaria, as a member of the EU, is obliged to comply with EU regulations and laws related to intellectual property rights. Therefore, intellectual property rights (IPR) in Bulgaria are generally governed by the same laws and regulations as in the rest of the European Union (EU).

In Bulgaria, there are several examples of how intellectual property rights (IPR) can be used to protect and monetize cultural heritage:

  • Trademarks: The ancient city of Plovdiv, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, registered its name as a trademark. This allows the city to protect its brand and prevent unauthorized commercial use of its name.
Renovated_house_in_Plovdiv old town,
Source: Wikipedia, https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Старинен_Пловдив
Renovated_house_in_Plovdiv old town,
Source: Wikipedia, https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Старинен_Пловдив
  • Copyright: The National Archaeological Institute and Museum of Bulgaria owns copyright on the images of the ancient Thracian treasures that are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum in Sofia. This allows the institute to control the reproduction and distribution of these images and generate revenue from licensing fees.
Thracian treasure in the National Archaeological Institute and Museum of Bulgaria.
Source: https://welcome.bg/listing/национален-археологически-институт/

Thracian treasure in the National Archaeological Institute and Museum of Bulgaria.
Source: https://welcome.bg/listing/национален-археологически-институт/
  • Patents: A Bulgarian company has developed a new method for the restoration of frescoes in churches and monasteries. They have patented this method, which allows them to control the use of the technology and charge fees for its implementation.
Frescoes of 11th-12th century, Boyana Church, Sofia, Bulgaria
Attribution: Ann Wuyts - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sofia_-_Boyana_Church_Apse_%284967294741%29.jpg, Creative Commons Attribution License
Frescoes of 11th-12th century, Boyana Church, Sofia, Bulgaria
Attribution: Ann Wuyts – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sofia_-_Boyana_Church_Apse_%284967294741%29.jpg, Creative Commons Attribution License

  • Geographical indications: Bulgarian Rose Oil is an example of a product with registered geographical indications. Bulgaria has applications for entry of “Bulgarian yoghurt” as Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) in the European Register of Protected Designations of Origin and Protected Geographical Indications. This means that only products produced in a certain region and following certain rules can be labeled and sold as “Bulgarian yogurt”. This protects the reputation of the product and helps promote the region and its specific qualities with the proven health benefits of a probiotic superfood.

Now, you see with these small examples that by protecting and effectively managing IPR, their holders can promote the cultural heritage better, and at the same time generate revenues.

Many more examples and best practices can be found in the Learn-IP training program. Just follow the link to our interactive Learn-IP training platform for blended learning: https://moodle.learn-ip.eu

About Learn-IP project

The online training programme is developed 2020-2023 to support cultural heritage managers and cultural tourism actors with the effective use of digital technologies to check for compliance with IPR regulations. It will raise awareness of the many IPR regulations and their relevance for products and services.

The training programme will act as an online “guided tour” through IPR regulations and will indicate what can be done to legally protect your property, expertise and knowledge. It will provide transparency in a field that for many representatives of cultural heritage and cultural tourism is still a no man’s land. The training will also show when professional help is recommended.

Three learning materials are developed:

The main target groups are cultural, religious and creative tourism professionals, cultural workers and cultural/religious heritage managers. The secondary target group are training providers who will offer the training in the future.

The Learn-IP Training Programe is developed on 6 European langugaes: english, german, spanish, bulgarian, macedonian and romanian.

Project website: https://learn-ip.eu

SKIVRE supports the European Monasteries with 31 Good Practices

Monasteries are sacred places for spiritual life. They preserve valuable knowledge and cultural heritage, therefore often become guardians of local traditions.

In the past, monasteries were strongly associated with the regional development also on an economic level by producing wine, beer, food and different items for religious practices. Nowadays, many of them continue their active role within the local communities.

SKIVRE Project, funded by Erasmus+ EU Program, is dedicated on collecting good practices from the European monasteries. The SKIVRE partners, under the guidance of INI-Novation Bulgaria OOD, assembled already 31 good practices showing variety of monastic economic activities which have financial benefits for the monasteries themselves and for the people in the region.

We realized that the monastic production does not obey the typical marketing laws that govern secular production. Monks and nuns use old traditional recipes that they have kept for centuries and strictly follow. The food and drinks produced in the monasteries are mostly ecological and completely natural. These qualities are attractive to local buyers, as well as to those who visit the monastery as tourists.

Our collected good practices will be soon available for free on a specially designed educational platform of SKIVRE.

Bellow, the first 10 good practices are shortly presented:

Good practice 1: Bildhausen Monastery in Germany

The monastery emerged from an endowment that enabled the foundation of a Cistercian monastery in 1158. The monastery is run by the Dominikus-Ringeisen-Werk, a church foundation under public law. Since 1983, a recognised workshop for disabled people has supplemented the existing housing offer with a multitude of job opportunities. Many of the handcrafted products manufactured in the workshops are offered and sold in the monastery shop as well as online.


Good practice 2: The Bronnbach Monastery Shop “Bronnbacher Klosterladen” in Germany

The monastery shop in Bronnbach is a multifaceted facility serving both the sale of monastery products and the purchase of entrance tickets for the listed monastery complex. From this good practice you will learn how to run the monastery shop successfully by applying strategic marketing.


Good Practice 3: The International Trappist Association – International Network to Protect Brand and Values

The International Trappist Association (ITA) unites twenty Trappist abbeys located all over the world. A variety of products for sale are produced by Trappist monks and nuns in these monasteries. It’s a non-profit association, dedicated to assist the members in the production of goods and in the pursuit of standards of excellence.


Good practice 4: MANIFACTUM – Good Things from Monasteries

The German company MANUFACTUM. has been providing the range ‘Good Things from Monasteries (“Gutes aus Klöstern”) for 18 years.  It comprises over 300 monastic products from across Europe, including body care products, food, linen, clothes, crockery, sweets, wine, spirits, remedies, books and CDs. Its catalogue has products from 65 European monasteries.


Good practice 5: Authentic Monastic Products with a Strong Brand – Tsurnogorski Monastery “St. St. Kozma and Damian” in Bulgaria

Tsurnogorski monastery “St. St. Kozma and Damian” has an important place in the ecclesiastical, cultural and political history of the Bulgarians of the present-day Central West Bulgaria. In order for the monastery to perform its religious activities, it needs both – financing and generation of its own income from economic activities such as animal husbandry and agriculture. The monastery has started its own production of dairy products – buffalo yoghurt and cheese. Additionally, the monks produce dried sausages from high quality buffalo meat. The monastery maintains its own monastery shop.


Good practice 6: Digital Storytelling for Monastic Products linked to Mount Athos, Greece

“Mount Athos eShop – Product Exhibition of Mount Athos” is operated by a reseller dedicated to promoting the work of Mount Athos Monks. It is not owned by the monasteries of the Mount Athos, but dedicated to their monastic life. An eShop makes available to the public authentic handicrafts which are being produced with care by monks at the Holy Monasteries, Sketes and Cells of Mount Athos, highlighting an important aspect of monastic life.


Good practice 7: Digital Storytelling for Monastic Products: Saint Augustin and Serafeim of Sarov Monastery in Greece

Saint Augustin and Serafeim of Sarov monastery in Greece, founded in 1984 and located close to Nafpaktos and Patras cities, is one of the few monasteries which already offers directly an e-shop for selling their products without any reseller and operates social networking accounts about their products. The monks are producing a variety of monastic products such as food, drinks, artefacts e.t.c.


Good practice 8: EUCOSMIA e-shop, Greece

The monastery was built during the second half of the 10th century. About 50 monks live today in the monastery, where is applied an extensive construction project in order to restore the larger buildings. Apart from the frescoes and the masaics, the monastery has in its possession a large number of unique portable icons, manuscripts and religious objects. EUCOSMIA is producing and distributing two series of products: food, drincs and care products. EUCOSMIA has also presence in popular Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram as well as has a YouTube channel.


Good practice 9: Kloesterreich – Feel Free to Step Away from your Daily Routines, Austria

The association Kloesterreich was established in Austria and has members in five European countries. Currently it includes altogether 22 monasteries from Austria, one from Germany, one from Switzerland, one from Hungary and two from the Czech Republic. Convents and monasteries offer room for body, spirit and soul. They share their treasures of faith, prayer and their rich cultural heritage with the coming interested people and pilgrims.


Good practice 10: Authentic Monastic Products with a Strong Brand – Kremikovtsi Monastery “St. George the Victorious” in Bulgaria

Kremikovtsi Monastery “St. George the Victorious” is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery founded during the Second Bulgarian Empire (12th–14th century) and re-established in 1493 by a local Bulgarian noble, the monastery includes two churches. Of these, the older medieval church is notable for its highly regarded 15th-century frescoes. Nowadays, Kremikovski Monastery is a functional one. Under а clever guidance, the monastery develops in many directions: production, managing a monastery shop, online sales and distribution, social activities and active investments for reconstruction.


Soon, we will publish the next 10 good practices collected in SKIVRE project.

10 Learning Modules and 31 Good Practices from European Monasteries

PREPARED BY SKIVRE PROJECT CONSORTIUM

Monastic heritage represents an important part of European heritage, shared by all European member states mainly in their rural areas. In the past times, monasteries served not only the transmission of Christian faith. They were economic hot spots for the exchange of goods and services.

Nowadays, the production of monastic products is an enormous economic chance for many monasteries to gain income – in order to survive, to develop and to preserve their cultural heritage.

Many monasteries produce variable products using their own recipes based on centuries-old traditions – e.g. handcrafted personal care products as soaps and lotions, textiles, natural food as bread, marmalade, liquors, beer, wine, milk, meat products, and religious articles as well.

Many of the monasteries with own production are creating employment for local people in rural areas. They are establishing collaboration with local production companies as well. Furthermore, they contribute to tourism industry and economic development in their region.

The knowledge of the production of these products is part of the EU’s intangible cultural heritage. Therefore, the SKIVRE project is dedicated to a collection of good practices and creating teaching modules for all monasteries, who want to develop their economic activity and to establish good trading relationships with other monasteries and other stakeholders.

Till now, under the guidance of INI-Novation Bulgaria OOD, 10 learning modules were created and 31 good practices were collected from Germany, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Bulgaria and Austria. All SKIVRE partners were contributing with generation of learning content, establishing good relationships with different monasteries in their own countries.

All modules and good practices will be uploaded on a special web-platform created by our Greek partner GUNET. The platform is under development at the moment and will be available very soon.

With all project activities, SKIVRE contributes to “Heritage Sharing” – the theme of the “European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018” by developing a training scheme for the production and marketing of high quality handmade products of European monasteries.

SKIVRE Partners in Leuven for Their 3rd Project Meeting

IMG-20190924-WA0017September 23 and 24 were two fruitful days for SKIVRE consortium on the 3rd project meeting in Leuven.  Main topics on the meeting were the training development and future testing of the training modules. Angela Ivanova as a representative of INI-Novation Bulgaria OOD, the partner responsible for these important tasks, presented the progress of the consortium work on the training scheme and on the collection of good practices as well.

Along with the discussions and decisions made on the meeting, the SKIVRE partnership  visited the extraordinary Abbey Park in Belgian #Leuven. This meeting is hosted by our colleagues of Future for Religious Heritage who also organised a study visit to Abbey of #Averbode. Here our team learned a lot about their monastic products and marketing activities.

At the end, all partners were convinced that we have two more good practices for our training modules and for the future benefits of our learners.

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SKIVRE visit in Tsarnogorski monastery in Bulgaria

SKIVRE Partners on a visit in Tsarnogorski Monastery, Bulgaria, Source: http://www.svetogorie.com

SKIVRE Partners on a visit in Tsarnogorski Monastery, Bulgaria, Source: http://www.svetogorie.com

As part of the planned project meeting in Bulgaria organised by INI-Novation Bulgaria, the SKIVRE project team visited the Tsarnogorski Monastery “St. St. Cosmas and Damian”, also well-known Giginski Monastery.  On May 8th 2019, the partners met the Abbot Archimandrite Nikanor and during the conversation, in the process of bilateral acquaintance, topics related to the aims of the project, as well as issues related to religions, Christianity and the holy Orthodox Church, were discussed.

The SKIVRE project, abbreviated as Skills Development for the Valorisation of European Religious Heritage, has the ultimate goal of developing a 10-module educational program to support the development of production and the management of various monastic products. The modules will be  and uploaded on a special online platform to serve for training monks, hired workers in monasteries, volunteers, etc.

The SKIVRE team brings together representatives of various civil and Christian organizations and companies from Germany, Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria and Austria. The implementation of the project is funded by the European program “Erasmus +” under funding number 2018-1-DE02-KA202-005023.

In front of the guests from Europe, the abbot of the Tsarnogorski Monastery archimandrite Nikanor talked about the ancient tradition that the Orthodox monks kept to sustain and develop their monasteries, thanks to their work and realization of products they produce. He shared the good experience of the monastery in the development of his own agriculture as well as buffalo and another livestock farming. He presented dairy and other products produced in the monastery, and shared his vision for development of pilgrimage tourism in the Pernik region.

Monastic shop in Tsarnogorski Monastery, Bulgaria

Monastic shop in Tsarnogorski Monastery, Bulgaria

Monastic shop in Tsarnogorski Monastery, Bulgaria

Monastic shop in Tsarnogorski Monastery, Bulgaria

             The cleric explained that the partnership with the project team will be a significant benefit for the monastery and for other Orthodox monasteries in the country, therefore, he appreciated a formal invitation for collaboration in the SKIVRE project.

SKIVRE partners expressed their interest in the initiative of the monastery to organize an exhibition event for monastic products, which since 2018 is performed within the framework of the Tsarnogorski folk fair. Furthermore, the opportunity was addressed, to jointly present the project results with INI-Novation Bulgaria at the official forum of the fair in 2020

At the end of the meeting, SKIVRE partners visited the monastery churches and chapel, and got acquainted with the history of the monastery. They have also shown interest in the story of the miraculous icon of Most Holy Mother of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. After the highly appreciated visit, the Abbot Archimandrite Nikanor expressed his invitation to all SKIVRE partners to visit the monastery again.

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This article is based on the original online publication of Tsarnogorski Monastery (www.svetogorie.com).

Find more photos on the Facebook page of the monastery following the link.

SKIVRE – Preserving Religious Heritage

European Commission supports INI-Novation Bulgaria for Project Activities

In the next two years, INI-Novation Bulgaria participates in a high-class European consortium for a project in the preservation of the religious heritage. The European Commission is funding an initiative that will qualify religious institutions to professionally develop and distribute marketable monastic products. The first project meeting with ten representatives from six European countries took place in Bronnbach Monastery, Germany.

45572551_940633849468993_2528864567652515840_oThe SKIVRE project (“Skills Development for the Valorisation of European Religious Heritage”) will be financed by the European ERASMUS+ programme. The project manager Angela Ivanova names three objectives: To expand competence in European monasteries for the development, production and marketing of high-quality products, to establish Europe-wide sales strategies for monastic products and to revive the monasteries’ historical craftsmanship. Behind this is the clear intention to generate income through high-quality, authentic monastic products, which will directly benefit the preservation of the monasteries. The following are created

  • a multilingual training program for monastic employees, monks and nuns to professionalize the development, production and marketing of monastic products,
  • a user-friendly digital learning platform,
  • a handbook for monastic products with guidelines for professional production and marketing via trade, and
  • a publication on historical crafts in monasteries and their potential for social entrepreneurship in rural areas.

IMG-20181106-WA0039 IMG-20181106-WA0043Monastic products for the preservation of religious heritage

The production of monastic products (e.g. handmade body care products (soaps, lotions, bread, jam, spirits, beer, wine, religious products) is a means of generating income and contributes to the preservation of the religious heritage and the safeguarding of jobs. Monasteries often could not survive without the production and sale of these products. The historical knowledge about the production of these products is part of the immaterial cultural heritage of Europe.

Religious Heritage in Danger

 “The approval of the project and the associated funds are a clear recognition of our long-year efforts for heritage preservation” says Wolfgang Kniejski, Managing Director of INI-Novation. “This commitment has convinced the European Commission that INI-Novation Bulgaria is exactly the right part for this project”. INI-Novation Bulgaria have important tasks in the project implementation. The company is a leader of the work package related with the training modules creation tasks including a research targeting European monasteries in the partner countries.

“Our European religious heritage is in great danger of being unsustainable in the long term. According to a research with a topic “Current problems in preserving the monasteries in Bulgaria”, in the last few years there has been a steady decrease in visits and donations in Bulgarian monasteries by Bulgarian citizens. The reasons for this can be sought in the economic situation of the state and society. The production tradition has also been abolished – in the past the Bulgarian monasteries have been a serious producer of both agricultural and household items, but they have been selling them, but they have recruited their own support. Nowadays, a a few monasteries have own production that can financially support their existence, development and preservation of the religious heritage. SKIVRE project supports this process to recover the production tradition in the monasteries. INI-Novation Bulgaria has led or contributed to several European projects in recent years, related to preservation of the religious heritage. “We are now contributing these experiences to SKIVRE,” says the expert.

European cultural heritage seal for SKIVRE

The awarding of the seal of the European Cultural Heritage Year 2018 for the project came just in time for the first project meeting in Germany. “This makes our project visible throughout Europe as a contribution to the European Cultural Heritage Year 2018”, the German project coordinator Karin Drda-Kühn is pleased to say.

European expertise for the project

 In addition to INI-Novation Bulgaria, the partnership comprises of a multidisciplinary European team representing the target groups and the expertise required for the sustainable impact of SKIVRE: media k GmbH as coordinator (Germany), Bronnbach monastery (Germany), the European network “Future for Religious Heritage” (Belgium), the two educational developers Wissenschaftsinitiative Niederösterreich (Austria) and INI-Novation (Bulgaria) as well as the digital development partner GU-net (Greece).

Contact:

Angela Ivanova, project manager, INI-Novation Bulgaria

email: angela.ivanova@ini-novation.com

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